The Horror Flick
by Arysta
Summary: A Halloween Fic! Kagome and Inuyasha are scared out of their wits by a horror flick—and take Souta along for the ride!
1. Chapter One

The Horror Flick

By Arysta

Part One: The One-Hour Challenge

It was the scariest movie that Kagome had ever seen, and near the end she couldn't even remember why she had wanted to see it in the first place. She watched as the climax built, the silence in the movie's background saying more than any scream ever good. 

"Kagome-neechan?"

Kagome jumped. "I'll be there in a minute," she said, unable to tear her eyes away from the screen. 

"I'm thirsty," Souta persisted. "Can I get a drink?"

"Yes, yes," she said. "Don't turn around," she said to the screen. Unhearing—it was a movie, after all—the man turned around. Eerie music hummed, and Kagome clenched her hand tightly.

"Hey, that hurts!" Inuyasha complained. 

"Shush!"

Inuyasha laid back against the couch, mumbling, and on the screen the television flickered on. 

"What is this?" Souta asked. "Is it a good movie?"

"Get out of here, Souta!" Kagome said, even as the girl began to pull herself out of the screen toward the unsuspecting professor. 

"Keh," Inuyasha barked. "She's not so scary."

The professor's scream echoed, but Kagome didn't see what was happening. She had already pulled a blanket over her head and shut her eyes tightly.

The music changed, finally, and she began to breathe again.

"Are you finished hiding?" Inuyasha asked, lifting the blanket away. "It wasn't too scary." 

Kagome ground her teeth, finally remembering why she had wanted to see the movie that had scared every one of her friends witless. Because of him. She flipped on the light, feeling marginally better after the room was illuminated.

"Neechan? Is this that movie?" Souta's voice was quivering. "The one that Hajime came over here to copy?"

Enter the wildcard. Kagome forced herself to sit up. "Don't worry, Souta. It's just a movie. It can't hurt you." She smiled at her little brother. Why couldn't he have just stayed in bed? It was after midnight, for crying out loud! Weren't little kids—well, human kids—supposed to be asleep by that time?

Souta looked to Inuyasha, and then back to Kagome, and she could see the tears sprouting in his eyes. "I don't want to go to bed!" 

Kagome groaned. She should have known that her plan would blow up in her face. Not only had Inuyasha not been affected by the movie, but now she had to deal with Souta!

"Hajime said that his cousin… his cousin didn't copy the tape like he was supposed to and he.. he died!" 

Kagome ignored the shiver that ran through her. She had heard this story, though it had never seemed so… well, scary, before. "Hajime's cousin died in a car accident," she reminded him.

Scenes of the dead teens in their car jumped to the forefront of her mind. She shoved them back forcefully.

Inuyasha was watching them both carefully.

"I don't want you to die!" Souta said, crying full-out.

"Ne, ne, don't worry," Kagome said, just as the lights flickered. She turned, her stomach churning and her heart speeding, as the television burst to staticky life. Souta wailed and flung himself into her arms, and even Inuyasha stood, hand on Tetsusaiga's hilt.

"It was a movie," Kagome told herself. "Only a movie."

"Maybe not," Inuyasha said grimly. "Maybe this tape is possessed." 

"Possessed?" Kagome hissed out. It was becoming a struggle to breathe.

He nodded his head. "Some youkai live as images."

Souta's eyes widened. 

"This was just a movie," Kagome insisted, holding the boy tighter.

Then the power went off.

All hell broke loose.

Kagome screamed and cursed as something hit her in the nose, and jumped to her feet. A loud thump echoed in the room. There came the distinct sound of a sword being drawn right before a shower of sparks blinded her for a moment. 

"Osuwari!" Kagome yelled. 

"Kagome!" 

"You can't break that tape," she said. "Just in case it is a youkai—or a curse. We have to make a copy of it."

"Kagome," Inuyasha said quietly. "Don't move."

"What?" 

"There's water on the floor."

"What?" She screamed this time. "Water?"

"Calm down," Inuyasha barked.

"Where's Souta? Souta? Are you alright?"

There was no response.

Kagome stepped toward Inuyasha's voice—and found her foot on an arm. "Aiiyeeeee!" She jumped, throwing herself toward Inuyasha.

"What it is?" 

"An arm. A wet arm, on the floor."

Inuyasha cursed. "We need a light!" 

She finally touched the familiar material of his fire-rat coat, and followed the fabric up until she could touch Inuyasha's back.

"Kagome?" His voice sounded strange. 

"Where's Souta? We have to find Souta!" She said, still trying to find his face with her fingers. Inuyasha's back twitched beneath her touch. She leaned forward to reach higher, and her feet slipped on the wet carpet, squeaking loudly. 

Inuyasha growled and leapt into movement, throwing Kagome off his back. She fell into the spreading puddle, and yelped once as her head smacked into the floor. Inuyasha's growl ran through her very bones. She got to her knees painfully, one hand reaching to feel the growing goose-egg on the back of her head. "Inu…" she said, then coughed and shivered. Her nightgown was wet, her hair straggled in her face and stuck to her nose, cheeks and chin. "Souta," she called hoarsely, blinking in a dual attempt to clear the darkness from her vision and to alleviate the pain that was still throbbing in her skull.

A whoosh nearby was followed by a crash, and Kagome felt the razor-sharp cut of nails on her leg. 

"Kag…" the voice was rough, inhuman. Inuyasha's growl still rumbled, but fingers were fumbling for her ankle. 

Kagome screamed again, and threw herself to the ground. She dug her nails into the wet carpeting so hard that she felt one break, but spared it no thought. The hand on her ankle was cold and small, almost childlike.

She sobbed in fear, unable to control it any longer. Had she survived youkai, mononoke, evil teachers and even Naraku to be killed by a movie? And what about Souta? What would her mother think when she came home to find them both dead? She sobbed again, and pulled away from the fingers that were tightening determinately on her ankle. She kicked ineffectually. She was barefoot, and she didn't know where her assailant was. 

"Kagome, are you alright?"

She sobbed even louder at Inuyasha's roughly rumbled question. "She's got me," she whispered, afraid to speak, afraid to move, afraid… 

She heard the squish of his oncoming footsteps in the soaked rug. The hands crawled up her leg. "Don't come closer," said. "Run away, Inuyasha. Run away."

"I'm not leaving you," he said.

"Find Souta and leave!" She tried to pull herself farther from the hands, to buy them time to escape. Her finger twinged where she had torn the nail. Her other hand was caught in unraveling fibers, immobilized. The hands were scrabbling up her calf now, but she could feel the rawness of her skin where the touch had been, the familiar ache of open wounds. Her stomach contracted and acid burned in her throat.

"Kagome's blood?" Inuyasha's growl built in the darkness, strangely, comforting her. Kagome's head still throbbed, her throat ached. 

"Just leave! Hurry!" 

"I will not!" 

There was another woosh, and then Kagome felt something heavy smack onto her head.

There was nothing.

*****

"Onee-chan!" 

"Souta!" Inuyasha blinked in the sudden brightness. Her heart began to unclench. Kagome's brother was alright. His hair was wet, his eyes were shining with tears, but he was alive. The youaki—the curse—whatever—hadn't gotten him.

Then he saw Kagome.

"Damn it."

"What happened? Is she okay?"

Inuyasha thrust Tetsusaiga back into its scabbard and took a deep sniff. The room was swimming the Kagome's blood-scent. His hands curled into claws, and before he could even consider moving Inuyasha found himself kneeling at her side.

She was still alive. If he looked closely, he could see the slight movements of her chest as she breathed. 

"Bandages," he said hoarsely. "We have to stop the bleeding."

Souta nodded, and ducked away.

He touched her with gentle fingers, exploring the places she was injured. Nothing seemed life-threatening, though her fingernail had been torn to the quick and her legs were slashed and cut. She still bled sluggishly. Her face was pale and she shivered even though she was unconscious. He lifted her out of the water puddle and set her on the couch. He pulled the blanket over her to keep her warm, and tucked the long wet strings of her hair out of her eyes.

"Souta? Where are the bandages?"

"I can't reach them," Souta said, panting. "They're too high up!" 

"Damn it," he hissed. "Don't move," he commanded her. "I'll be right back."

Even as he made his way to the bathroom, his mind was on revenge.

*****

She awakened to a flickering light, opened her eyes, and saw her hand covered with blood, her nightgown stained with it. Her heart thumped in her throat. 

She knew she was dying.

She turned her head.

Wreckage surrounded her. The television was a dead husk, the carpet ruined. She didn't see Souta or Inuyasha. 

They had gotten away. 

She swallowed back her tears of relief and let herself fade back into the blackness—and faintly, very faintly, heard the phone ring.

*****

End One Hour

*****


	2. Chapter Two

Part Two:

Souta watched Inuyasha's ears twitch with no little fascination. How much better did a hanyou hear than a human, anyway? And did Inuyasha hear better than other youkai because he was a dog youkai? The ears twitched again.

"What's that noise?"

"The phone!" Souta shuffled the first aid kid he carried onto his other arm and leapt for the phone. "Hello?" 

"Souta, what you are doing up?!" 

He winced. "Hi, Mom, how's the party?"

"Young man, it's midnight! You should be in bed. Where's your sister. Let me talk to Kagome." 

"Umm… she can't come to the phone right now." Souta twisted to watch Inuyasha prop Kagome against his shoulder and reach for her legs. He gulped when he saw that the hanyou was lifting Kagome's pink-stained nightgown—was he taking it off? He covered the phone with his hand. "Hey, I don't think you should do that!"

Inuyasha cocked his head, but his fingers didn't even pause. "She's wet and she'll get sick," he said. Souta rolled his eyes and looked away. What Inu-niichan said may be true, but he had no desire to get flattened for accidentally seeing his older sister undressed. 

"What was that? That wasn't Kagome. Who's there with you Souta? Souta?"

"It's okay, Mom. That's just Inuyasha."

Abrupt silence. 

"Mom?"

"What is Kagome doing right now?" Souta could hear his grandfather talking in the background. Something about the dessert table being set-up?

"Kagome fell asleep watching a movie. I got up for a drink just as the phone rang, and you said Inuyasha was never supposed to answer the phone, remember?"

"Hm. What?" Souta sneaked a look at his sister while he waited for his mother's attention. Kagome's nightgown was tossed over the back of the couch and Kagome herself was cuddled against Inuyasha's chest, draped in his red shirt. Inuyasha was sifting through her hair. Looking for wounds? Souta turned his attention back to the phone, where his mother was already speaking. "So tell Inuyasha that we'll be home in a couple of hours, and make sure that your sister is awake before you go back to bed, okay?"

"Yes, Mom." 

The click was loud, but with the sudden silence Souta could hear the mumbles of Inuyasha's coughs as he tended to Kagome.

"Is she okay?"

"She's fine," Inuyasha said. "It's mostly scratches. Except for her finger." 

Souta looked at the injured digit. His sister had managed to tear her nail off completely, taking a good-sized chunk of skin from the finger underneath. He winced. That was going to hurt when she wore up. "I think I have some spray for that," he said, remembering that he was carrying the first aid kit.

Inuyasha nodded. "There should be a cream in there, too. For her legs."

Legs that were riddled with scratches, wild, long tears of jagged flesh that still wept sluggishly.  Souta handed the hanyou the antibiotic cream. "Why isn't she awake then?"   

"This." Inuyasha shifted her, pulling back Kagome's dark hair with two fingers to reveal a sizeable bump. 

"She hit her head." 

Inuyasha nodded.

"We should take her to the hospital," Souta said. "Bumps on the head can be dangerous, and they'd have strong medicine for this cut."

Inuyasha's ears flicked back and forth, as if he was considering the idea.

"We have to find the enemy first," he said finally.           

"Enemy?" 

"The witch who scratched her. Who hit Kagome." The last he growled in a voice so deep it was nearly bestial. Souta blinked. 

"The… the curse?"

"Feh," Inuyasha shifted Kagome once more, reaching for a long bandage and the spray that Souta had dug from the kit. He applied the pain-killing mist without asking a single question. Souta had a feeling he knew where all the first aid supplies had been disappearing to lately. 

"Can you fight a curse," he asked, looking away from the bubbling tear. Though not weak-stomached, Kagome's finger wasn't easy to look at. 

"… t's not a curse," Kagome said, her voice slurred.

Inuyasha blinked, deftly checked the girl's pupils, coughed a satisfied-sounding 'keh' and kept working on Kagome's finger. 

"What?"

"It's not a curse," Kagome said again. "It was just a movie."

"It was a youkai." Inuyasha said at the same time. 

"Did you smell a youkai?" Kagome asked.        

"No," Inuyasha said gruffly, but…"

Kagome shifted, hissing in pain as Inuyasha began to liberally spray her legs. She looked down, and the blood drained from her face. "Kami-sama…."

"See. A youkai."

"Inuyasha."

"What?"

"It was Not a youkai—or a curse." Kagome said, slowly and distinctly. "It was only a movie."

"Stupid girl," Inuyasha said, taking out a handful of adhesive bandages and unwrapping them. "Stay still until I'm done taking care of you."

"I can take care of myself," Kagome said, struggling to remove herself from Inuyasha's grasp. "Why are you still awake, Souta? What if Mom comes home and finds you up?"

"She knows he's up, now just sit still."

"What?"

"She called while you were… ummm…" Souta twisted his fingers together and forced back a yawn. He was tired and cold and desperately wanted to crawl back in bed—but he wasn't going anywhere near his room until he was sure that whoever—or whatever—had attacked them wasn't going to come back. 

"Unconscious," she prompted.

"Right," Souta said. "She said she'll be home in a couple of hours—and that you're supposed to get up and not leave me alone with Inu-niichan."

Inuyasha tried to ignore Souta's babbling and focus on the ambient sounds. He heard the clicking of the appliances in the kitchen and the rumble of traffic from the street in front of the shrine, but couldn't make out the presence of any unfamiliar being. He couldn't sense any jyaki but his own, either. 

Kagome's struggles were easy to quell—didn't the girl understand that she needed medical attention? He finished sealing her wounds with the small, sticky bandages and sniffed experimentally. The curiously wrenching smell of Kagome's blood had been only slightly diffused by his liberal application of sprays and creams—and by his own musky sweat. 

It wasn't quite enough to calm his racing heart. 

He needed to know that the threat was over—be it youkai, curse whatever. No matter what Kagome argued, it was clear that something had been in the room with them. There was no way that those scratches that decorated her legs had appeared for no reason! 

The last bandage applied, he hoisted Kagome to her feet. "Go get dressed," he said. "We have to find that youkai."

Kagome's eyes narrowed into slits. 

"Why are you upset now?"

"There is not a youkai!" 

"Why are you being so difficult about this?" His hand strayed to Tetsusaiga's hilt. "Come on, we're all going upstairs."

Kagome stiffened, and stepped once toward the staircase. She froze, and then looked down.

"Oh ick! And it's in the floor! Oh, Mama's going to *kill* me! And the couch! Wait a second, is that my nightgown??" 

With a heavy sigh, Inuyasha pulled Kagome into his arms. He sniffed appreciatively. Warm, squirming Kagome was better than the smell of blood—even her blood—any day. "Come on, Souta," he growled.

They trooped up the stairs slowly, Kagome whining, Souta holding onto the trailing leg of Inuyasha's pants, and Inuyasha ignoring both siblings. He was developing a plan.

*****

Kagome dressed quickly. Her face felt as if it was on fire—how could he have undressed her? Did he have no shame? There was no point in wearing her school uniform, so she pulled out a pair of jeans and a sweatshirt. The jeans also had the benefit of covering the two dozen or so bandages that the hanyou had attached to her not-so-recently shaven legs. Removing those things was going to be a real pain. She didn't want to see the 'scratches' underneath, either. Whatever Inuyasha considered a 'scratch' was something she was going to let heal a good week or two before examining closely. 

She pulled on the sweatshirt and brushed out her drying hair.

"Aren't you done yet?" Inuyasha called. 

"Almost," she called back. "Did Souta get changed?"

"I'm fine," Souta called.

"Good," she muttered. Her brother getting sick was the absolute worst thing that she needed—not on top of the ruined rug, the broken lamps and that sopping-wet couch. Oh, and the bloody clothes. Can't forget the bloody clothes, she reminded herself.

"That's it," she announced, throwing open her bedroom door and smiling at Inuyasha's blank face. She turned to Souta. "Can I have the clothes you were wearing? I'll stick them in the wash." He nodded, and then ducked into this room. Kagome could just detect the shiver that passed through him. 

She was glad that he hadn't seen the entire movie. He'd be plastered to her side and she wouldn't be able to get him off with a crowbar. Inuyasha didn't even seem fazed by the flick. 

"Look," she said, taking advantage of the time that Souta was out of range. "No more talking about youkai being in the film, okay, or of curses."

"Kagome, you didn't hurt yourself."

"I know!" She tossed her hair back. "And I know that we're going to have to find something about this—at the very least we're going to have to find some place where we can copy the tape, but I don't want Souta scared about this!"

"He's not a baby."

"So? That doesn't mean that he should be going around here scared he's going to die!"

The argument had no impact. Kagome inhaled and ground her teeth, searching for a way to explain it. "Look, I'm not worried. If that movie really killed people, then everyone in Japan would be dead. Clearly, most of Japan is perfectly healthy."

"Maybe they all copied that tape," Souta said quietly. "Hajime did." 

"And we will too—just in case," Kagome said brightly, mentally daring the hanyou to challenge her. 

Inuyasha rolled his eyes. "Fine. Where do we do this?"

Kagome bit her lip. "I think the best way is to call my friend Ayumi," she looked up at Inuyasha. "Can you behave yourself?"

"Keh!"

"I'll take that as a yes—this time," Kagome said. 

"Neechan, are you sure your friend will even be up?"

"She and a few other friends are having a Halloween party tonight, so they should be!"

"It is after midnight. Are you sure they'll let us use their VCR?"

"Well, I could take the VCR and go alone." It wouldn't work, though. He had to make his own copy to break the curse—at least, according to the story.

"We all go," Inuyasha said.

"Alright," Kagome nodded. "Just let me put these disgusting clothes in the wash."

*****

End Part Two

*****


End file.
